The EpiPen and Food Allergies (from Drug Story)

An Arm and a Leg

Society & Culture, Medicine, Documentary, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2026

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hey, first! We’re looking for your help. Can you take a couple minutes and fill out our Audience Survey?

We’re dying to know more about the community that’s using this show — and about what’s working for you and what you’d like to see. Let us know!

Today we’re switching it up. We’re sharing an episode from the new podcast Drug Story. In each episode, science journalist and self-described “public health nerd” Thomas Goetz goes deep on the story of a single drug — what it treats, how it came to be, and what it reveals about the business of health and disease.

On this episode: the EpiPen, a device you’ll find in classrooms, on airplanes, in glove compartments — basically everywhere — because the EpiPen can be a literal life-saver for people with severe allergies.

And of course, the EpiPen is also one of the most infamous examples of pharmaceutical profiteering gone bananas.

That part of the story makes us especially geeked to share this episode.

And there are more threads here — on the drug’s discovery, on the science of severe food allergies, and on what researchers have learned about preventing them — that Goetz does a great job of weaving together.

If you like it, new episodes of Drug Story come out every week.

We’ll be back with more Arm and a Leg in a few weeks. Meanwhile, don’t forget to help us by filling out our quick survey.

Here’s a transcript of this episode.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Terry Gross, host of Fresh Air.
0:02.8	Hey, take a break from the 24-hour news cycle with us
0:05.6	and listen to long-form interviews
0:07.6	with your favorite authors, actors, filmmakers, comedians, and musicians,
0:12.1	the people making the art that nourishes us and speaks to our times.
0:16.5	So listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and WHYY.
0:21.1	Hey there.
0:22.2	With today's story, we're switching things up a little bit.
0:25.0	But first, I want to ask your help.
0:27.6	Can you take a couple minutes to help us make an arm and a leg better by taking a quick survey to help us understand what's working for you and what you'd like to see and hear more of
0:38.4	or less. Just go to arm and a leg show.com slash survey. That's arm and a leg show.com
0:46.0	slash survey. There's a link wherever you're listening. You could go ahead and click it right now
0:50.6	and then it'll be there when you're done listening. Okay, now, on to today's special.
0:56.8	I'm excited to share an episode from a new podcast called Drug Story.
1:01.7	The host, Thomas Getz, describes himself as a science journalist and public health nerd.
1:06.6	So each episode dives deep into the story of a single drug and what it reveals about the business of health and disease.
1:15.4	So we're sharing his story about the EpiPen, which is a divisional finding classrooms on airplanes and glove compartments everywhere.
1:24.6	Because the EpiPen can be a literal lifesaver for people with severe allergies.
1:30.6	And of course, the EpiPen is also a symbol of drug company profiteering, which is why I'm so pleased to bring you this particular episode of drug story.
1:46.1	Briefly, in 2007, a company called Milin Pharmaceuticals took over the EpiPen.
1:51.5	It had been around for a while.
1:52.9	And they did two things.
	...

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